strait
To confine; put to difficultiesTo confine; put to difficulties.
» At its narrowest, the Strait of Gibraltar is 14.3 kilometers wide.
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 senses(obsolete, transitive)To confine; put to difficulties.
(obsolete, transitive)To tighten.
Examples
38 sentencesAt its narrowest, the Strait of Gibraltar is 14.3 kilometers wide.
Algeria still remained in dire straits.
Our company is in dire straits.
ruНаша компания находится в отчаянном положении. — marafon
An artificial causeway was built across the strait.
At this point the sea narrows into a strait.
ruВ этой точке море сужается до пролива. — odexed
Origin
From Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin stricFrom Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus, perfect passive participle of stringō (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strict.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
straits, straiting, straited, straitedLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.